posted September 29, 2007 08:34 PM              

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Iran's parliament votes to label CIA, U.S. Army 'terrorist' groups

* Story Highlights
* Iran's parliament says CIA, U.S. Army "train terrorists," IRNA reports
* Parliament bases label on "known and accepted" standards of terrorism
* U.S. Senate passed resolution to label Iran's Quds Force a terrorist group
* CIA: "There are some things that don't even deserve comment. This is one."
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(CNN) -- The Iranian parliament on Saturday voted to designate the United States' Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Army as terrorist organizations, IRNA, the country's state-run news agency, reported.

The Iranian parliament says the U.S. Army and the CIA are "trained terrorists," IRNA reported.

The CIA and the U.S. Army "trained terrorists and supported terrorism, and they themselves are terrorists," the parliament said, according to IRNA.

The Iranian parliament said the condemnation was based on "known and accepted" standards of terrorism from international regulations, including the U.N. charter.

The parliament said it condemns the "aggressions by the U.S. Army, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan" and calls on the United Nations to "intervene in the global problem of U.S. prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and secret jails in other countries," IRNA reported, quoting a statement from Iranian lawmakers.

The Iranian parliament also decried the CIA's and U.S. Army's involvement in the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, U.S. involvement in the Balkans, Vietnam and the U.S. support of Israel.

Of the condemnation, Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, said, "There are some things that don't even deserve comment. This is one."

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said he declined to comment "on non-binding resolutions passed by parliaments in countries with dubious records on human rights, democracy and that are state sponsors of terror."
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There was no immediate response from the U.S. State Department.

Washington and U.S. military leaders have long accused Iran of training and equipping insurgents in Iraq. The United States and Iran have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1980 after Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held Americans hostage for 444 days.

The Iranian lawmakers' condemnation was in apparent retaliation for the U.S. Senate's resolution Wednesday requesting that the United States designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or Quds Force, as a foreign terrorist organization.

The Senate resolution passed a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the U.N. General Assembly that an agreement reached last month between his country and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its disputed nuclear program has, in the Iranian view, settled the matter.

Iran says its nuclear program is necessary for civilian energy production. The United States and other Western nations have accused Tehran of trying to build a nuclear weapon. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.

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Iran's parliament votes to label CIA, U.S. Army 'terrorist' groups